Preview: Pakistan v South Africa, 2nd T20I

Batsmen! Batsmen! Batsmen! Unlike the false call made by the boy in one of Aesop's Fables classic, 'The Boy who cried Wolf', this is a genuine and desperate SOS call by the Pakistani team ahead of the 2nd ODI against South Africa in Dubai.

A change in format but no change in fortunes. The sorry tale of the Pakistani batting has continued as they were given a thrashing by South Africa in the first T20I in Dubai. The way things are going, the day is not far when the Pakistan Cricket Board would have to start importing batsmen from neighbouring countries or maybe even resort to cloning!

South Africa would want to leave the desert land on a high and rest assured they would not look to experiment too much as indicated by skipper, Faf du Plessis at the conclusion of the last encounter. Pakistan, on the other hand, would play for pride and honour and for once look to prove their critics wrong.

Pakistan

The Pakistani batsmen, for the love of God, need to get their act together. Only Umar Akmal looked in some sort of form in the first T20I. The rest looked nervous and rusty, were reckless and capitulated under pressure from some excellent and hostile bowling by the South African pacers. Sohaib Maqsood had shown some potential and class in the ODI series and the team would be hopeful that at least he can come up with a good performance.

The skipper, Mohammad Hafeez needs to accept some responsibility and provide the fragile middle-order some stability. The move to move Boom Boom Afridi up the order to Number 3 didn't really boom for the hosts. Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal and Abdul Razzak would hold the key to the batting coming lower down the order.

The bowling has kept Pakistan's face and been the reason that has prevented total annihilation from the opposition. Mohammad Irfan and Saeed Ajmal were economical in the previous match. The side has a lot of variety in both pace and spin but the bowlers would be desperately seeking some sort of assistance from their fellow batsmen.

South Africa

South Africa are on a high after the comprehensive ODI series win and then the mauling they handed out to Pakistan in the first T20I. The batting looks strong with Quinton de Kock and Faf du Plessis in fine touch up the order. In Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers, the Proteas have some world class players amongst their ranks. South Africa might give AB a break and rope in David Wiese in his place.

David Miller is a dangerous power-hitter coming lower down in the order. Ryan McLaren has also proven to be a very useful bowling all-rounder capable of hitting a heavy ball at the death. JP Duminy and Morne Morkel are back in South Africa for a much needed break ahead of the busy home summer.

Dale Steyn had vowed to focus his efforts on winning South Africa the T20I World Cup in Bangladesh next year and he walked the talk with the ideal preparation picking up 3 wickets in the first T20I - a man of the match effort. Lonwabo Tsotsobe is also in tremendous form as he displayed in Dubai on Wednesday. Imran Tahir will in all probability again lead the spin attack unless Aaron Phangiso is given a look in.

Stats

A win for South Africa would ensure they go up to Number 2 in the ICC T20I rankings. However, if Pakistan salvage a tied series, they will hold onto their Number 2 position and South Africa will remain at Number 5

Pakistan are the only team whose batsmen have collectively registered 50 individual duck innings in T20Is.

Quotes:

We got a massive wake-up call after we got a beating in the first Test and that's not the kind of cricket we wanted to play: Dale Steyn